Has anyone noticed this lately? Recently, and I've glad that they are doing this, studios like Universal Studios and Warner Brothers have begun reissuing their TV Shows with a lower price as well as with single sided DVD's. I noticed this trend started with ALF, then we saw such shows as Magnum P.I., Gilligans Island, CHiPs, Dukes of Hazzard, Buck Rogers and so on. But, what I have noticed is that while these studios are ditching the double-sided DVD sets and reissuing their shows as single sided DVD sets, I have also noticed that they are only releasing the first season or the first two seasons and then ending right there.

At first, I thought this might be great news that these studios would be re-releasing the rest of the series via this new format but no news has emerged and even news sites like TV Shows on DVD won't acknowledge their upcoming releases because they have a policy against reporting on these reissues.

When the recent release of CHiPs Season 1 and 2 were released, I thought this might be signaling that the rest of the series would be coming down the pipeline ... but I'm starting to realize that this isn't likely. And even shows like Magnum P.I., which should see the reissue of Seasons 3-5, which were double sided (?), are starting to be left to doubt.

What do you think? Just the studios trying to draw more profit from re-issuing these disks or are they just using this to reintroduce the first few seasons of these shows to new consumers?

Universal and Warner aren't the only studios doing this. Fox has done it for a long time; I remember Futurama going from the cardboard cases to the regular keepcases. They also reissued The X Files in keep cases. I'm not entirely sure who released Stargate (MGM, maybe?), but that entire series is in keepcases. Paramount is in the process of reissuing Star Trek: TNG in keepcases as well.

Universal and Warner aren't the only studios doing this. Fox has done it for a long time; I remember Futurama going from the cardboard cases to the regular keepcases. They also reissued The X Files in keep cases. I'm not entirely sure who released Stargate (MGM, maybe?), but that entire series is in keepcases. Paramount is in the process of reissuing Star Trek: TNG in keepcases as well.

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Stargate was with MGM in the beginning, then Fox took over.

Also, I believe Futurama has went to a third variation of cases, with seasons 1-4 being rereleased again with packaging matching the current seasons in both artwork style and horrible "green" packaging thaqt scratches discs all to hell.

Also, I believe Futurama has went to a third variation of cases, with seasons 1-4 being rereleased again with packaging matching the current seasons in both artwork style and horrible "green" packaging thaqt scratches discs all to hell.

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Wow...I had not seen these in the store. It's nice they're all matching now, but this is overkill...

I know Paramount did, when they started releasing Star Trek TOS on HD-DVD, MGM did as well with The Outer LImits. If you actually search Google, you can find them on your own. BHut, I did send an email to Universal asking about the re-release of Magnum P.I. Season 3 as single sided DVDs. I'll post again when I get more information.

Over the last two years or so, I've noticed quite a few older Universal tv season sets being massively dumped at Costco and various discount stores. Stuff like Magnum PI, The Incredible Hulk, Quantum Leap, Miami Vice, Emergency, Rockford Files, Columbo, Monk, the revived Battlestar Galactica, etc ... A year or two later, some of these sets eventually were re-released.

I get the impression Costo is one of the last places dvds end up passing through, before they end up in the bargain bins at various discount stores, or they disappear from the market. (IIRC, the Fox versions of the original Outer Limits dvds also passed through the local Costco stores a few years ago, and eventually disappeared from the market).

I usually keep an eye out for what pops up at Costco, largely to see whether it may be a signal for possible re-releases.

I too would like to see seaQuest DSV season 1 and Sliders season 3 re-released as single-sided dvd discs. So far I have held back on buying either flipper set. (Also they're not exactly high on my priority list either).

On a tangent, I get the impression the season 2 set of SeaQuest DSV was possibly originally planned as a flipper set, but was changed to all single-sided discs at the last minute. (ie. Eight single-sided discs, of which some are 5 gigs and the others are 8.5 gigs. A bit like the scrambled sizes of the recently re-released single-sided ten discs of the original Battlestar Galactica season 1 season set).

Other Universal flipper sets that would be great to see re-released as single-sided discs, but which I'm not holding my breath on:

Universal and Warner aren't the only studios doing this. Fox has done it for a long time; I remember Futurama going from the cardboard cases to the regular keepcases. They also reissued The X Files in keep cases. I'm not entirely sure who released Stargate (MGM, maybe?), but that entire series is in keepcases. Paramount is in the process of reissuing Star Trek: TNG in keepcases as well.

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If I had to guess as to why numerous tv season set re-releases are being packaged in generic keepcases, most likely it is easier for the movie studios to just bulk order a large number of generic 5 or 6 disc keepcases, than manufacturing custom digipack fold-out cases individualized to each particular dvd season set. (I don't know whether this would be less expensive, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is also the case).

From my memory of past shopping trips, here's a partial list of straight re-packaged dvd season sets in generic keepcases, which quite a number are also now bargain bin fodder at Best Buy, Walmart, etc ...:

Of the above listed titles, the only straight "repackaged" double-sided flipper disk sets I can recall offhand are: Remington Steele and The Pretender (both from Fox). (ie. They were not reissued as single-sided dvd discs).

the only straight "repackaged" double-sided flipper disk sets I can recall offhand are: Remington Steele and The Pretender (both from Fox). (ie. They were not reissued as single-sided dvd discs).

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I suspect and wouldn't be surprised if these two shows (Remington Steele and The Pretender) were re-released in generic keepcases, largely as an easy way of clearing out old inventory from Fox's warehouse.

I picked up the Remington Steele repackaged dvd sets, but not The Pretender ones.

(The Remington Steele ones were less than $10 a pop). After I picked these up and found out they were flipper discs, I became more skeptical about Fox re-released repackaged dvd season sets. With some more research I did at the time, I found out quite a few other Fox tv season sets were also done as flipper discs, such as (from memory):

For some of these flipper disc shows, I wouldn't be surprised if Fox is waiting for somebody else to contract out and do a "complete series" set as single-sided dvd discs, such as a company like Shout! Factory. For example, Shout! Factory has taken up the slack and are doing "complete series" single-sided disc sets for:

If I had to guess as to why numerous tv season set re-releases are being packaged in generic keepcases, most likely it is easier for the movie studios to just bulk order a large number of generic 5 or 6 disc keepcases, than manufacturing custom digipack fold-out cases individualized to each particular dvd season set. (I don't know whether this would be less expensive, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is also the case).

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It's probably that and also an issue of shelf & warehouse space. One of the old 24 or The X-Files sets are as thick as three of the re-release cases. That's a lot of real estate to 'waste' when you could be using a smaller package.

Not only that but Universal re-releasing these TV shows via single sided DVD sets and the single DVD cases gives them a chance to soak TV fans for DVD sales. If you've noticed, many of these re-issued sets are averaging between $25-30. It's offensive. One would think that Universal would lower those price points down to around $15-20. I was lucky enough to get that Columbo complete series set for about $70 and it was an awesome find/purchase for me.